FIFA 14

For a very long time, I played three video games. But I played those three games a lot. A lot.

Sometime in the past five years that number dropped to two games, and then a couple of years ago it narrowed to one.

That’s right, I really only play one game. But I play it all the time.

That game is whatever the latest version of EA’s FIFA soccer franchise happens to be. (The other two games, for those who were curious) were EA’s Madden franchise — the first one I gave up on — and EA’s NHL games.

FIFA became an all-consuming obsession because it was everything that Madden and NHL were not. Over the years, Madden and NHL’s producers got lazy and made the games harder, but never better. FIFA’s developers, on the other hand, strived to innovate. They revolutionized the game’s defensive system and constantly improved how players interacted with the ball and each other. And while doing that, they never sacrificed the game’s incredible speed and the players’ unnatural skill.

Sure, that meant the game never felt exactly like real life, but the NHL game feels pretty real and last year’s title was not an especially fun game to play — especially if you’re playing it against another person. (Unless, of course, you love the neutral zone, truly the greatest of all zones.)

But guess what? FIFA 14 has absolutely imported real-life physics into the gameplay. The result is … interesting. I don’t loathe it like I loathe the NHL game’s tight checking and takeaway insanity. FIFA 14 is extremely physical, and player acceleration now resembles actual human acceleration. Passing is harder, but crossing is easier.

Combined with last two years of improvements, it’s the most realistic sports game ever made (which I admit I said last year, but that was before I realized you could power burst past defenders in a bizarre, instantaneous rush of acceleration).

It’s hard to play the ball through the middle of the field, which means you have to utilize the wings more. Players push each other hard and battle for position. Defenders don’t tend to lose forwards as much as they used to, and don’t bother trying to accelerate if you have a man on you, you will lose the ball. All of this is incredibly true to the actual game.

My feelings on the changes are mixed. On one hand, the supernatural elements of the past two editions made them too easy. On the other hand, a few of the changes listed do make for more than a few frustrating moments in any game.

As for the rest of the game, the Team Management menu is glitchier than it was last year (hoping for a patch on that, EA) and the inbox in career mode is overly complicated, but the menus in general are faster and more streamlined. The games start faster, the graphics are better, and the soundtrack remains excellent.

You might have noticed that FIFA isn’t getting the usual string of 90-100 review scores, and that is because it’s not a definitively great game. I give the producers a lot of credit for making the decisions they made, probably knowing not all of them would pay off for fans of the franchise. And maybe (hopefully) after a year of playing the game, diehard users will find the holes and keep winning 6-2.

It’s still the only place where you’ll find cutting edge development in a sports game, and that alone is worth the price of admission.